Axel Alonso

In an interview with The Telegraph's Radhika Sanghani, Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso offered some insights into how he regards the superhero comic industry's treatment of female characters -- and his own intentions towards diversity.

The interview is chiefly noteworthy for confirming what already seems apparent from recent changes in Marvel's line-up, namely that Marvel understands and is responding to demographic changes in the marketplace. "We believe there's an audience of women out there who are hungry for this [product] and we want to make sure they get it," said Alonso. "This is affirmative action. This is capitalism.”

Since news first broke of DC Comics' plan to relocate its entire operation from New York City to Los Angeles, industry insiders have expected some high profile staffers would not only choose to leave DC Comics but actually make a jump to rival Marvel rather than move West. That scenario came true with DC editor Will Moss' migration to Marvel earlier this year, and now Marvel's announced that longtime DC staffer Mike Marts is joining the company as a new Executive Editor.

It was never a matter of if, but when Peter Parker would come back. A year ago this week, Marvel launched Superior Spider-Man, a classic mind-swap story that saw Doctor Octopus switch minds with Peter Parker, then proceed to take over both his personal and heroic life. It was a pretty standard mind swap premise, but with a bit of a twist: shortly after Doctor Octopus forced the switch, his body -- which was now occupied by Peter Parker's mind -- died, seemingly giving the villain a final victory over his hated rival.

But it was never meant to last, of course. And today, Marvel has announced the anticipated return of Peter Parker as Spider-Man, with a new era for the character beginning in April's Amazing Spider-Man #1 by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos, marking the return of the flagship title for the publisher's most popular hero.

Thumb through DC Comics' new releases this week and you'll find the above image -- a teaser for the upcoming Batman: Eternal weekly series -- in the back pages of a good many of them (all the books I saw, in fact).

I had to look up the artist who drew it. It's Detective Comics artist Jason Fabok, but it could just as easily be Tony Daniel, David Finch, Guillem March, Ivan Reis, Adrian Syaf, or a handful of other current DC artists. Like it or not, this is, with a few exceptions, just how DC Comics look now.

Saturday afternoon's Marvel panel was billed as an Inhumanity panel, but most of the announcements were for new Marvel solo books, and there was almost – almost – news about the future of the Ultimate Universe. But not quite.

Marvel Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort took the lead, joined by Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso and Ultimates editor Mark Paniccia, as well as writers Kieron Gillen, Jonathan Hickman, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dan Slott.

Marvel has published its fair share of zombie comics over the years, but now it can claim to have a one written by the father of the modern zombie genre, none other than Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero.

The Romeo-penned Empire of the Dead, which will feature art by Alex Maleev and a variant by Arthur Suydam, who also provided covers for the various Marvel Zombies mini-series, will debut in 2014.

There were three big announcements at this year's Cup O' Joe panel at San Diego Comic-Con - the return of Marvel UK, a sequel to Wolverine: Origin, and a Young Avengers jam story. As usual, however, the hour was dominated by questions from the audience.

Marvel Comics, via The New York Times, announced this morning that Angela -- a character created by Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane in the pages of Spawn, the rights to whom were contested between the two creators for years -- will be appearing in the Marvel Universe, making her Marvel debut in the pages of the publisher's current Age of Ultron series.
Angela first appeared in Spawn #9 in 1993, and ownership of the character eventually became a well publicized and decade-long legal battle betw

The launch of two new books saw the return of Marvel's cosmic titles at yesterday's Marvel Cup O' Joe panel at New York Comic-Con -- but we were told not to think of them as "cosmic" anymore. The panel led by Marvel chief cr

Welcome back to Comics Alliance

It appears that you already have an account created within our VIP network of sites on .
To keep your points and personal information safe, we need to verify that it's really you.
To activate your account, please confirm your password.
When you have confirmed your password, you will be able to log in through Facebook on both sites.

Welcome back to Comics Alliance

It appears that you already have an account on this site associated with . To connect your existing account just click on the account activation button below. You will maintain your existing VIP profile. After you do this, you will be able to always log in to http://comicsalliance.com using your original account information.